Lifeline
Overview: Lifeline provides distributed task support
for people with cognitive disabilities. People with
disabilities can use assistive technology devices to
achieve greater autonomy and experience new levels
of freedom. However, with this freedom comes increased
vulnerability. Lifeline provides a vital tether between
clients and caregivers. With Lifeline, caregivers have
the ability to monitor and assist their clients who are
using wireless task prompting systems in remote
locations.
Contact Information:
Andrew Gorman................agorman@cs.colorado.edu
Anja Kintsch..............................anja@cs.colorado.edu
Stefan Carmien...................carmien@cs.colorado.edu
www.cs.colorado.edu/~l3d/clever
Lifeline is a Cognitive Levers research project supported
by the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities.
Issues: Computer-based handheld devices have
been developed to provide task support for people
who have limited memory or problem solving skills.
Current support is based on the following assumptions:
1) actions required to complete tasks can be pre-planned
2) tasks can be completed by following the plan
In reality this approach has the following limitations:
1) plans need to be adapted as contingencies arise
2) ad hoc adaptation is often beyond a client’s capabilities
Mobile Client
Caregiver
4 Client or caregiver can
initiate communcation
Current Implementation: Lifeline supports
synchronous collaboration between geographically
distributed clients and caregivers. Through this
approach the power of distributed cognition can be
leveraged in context-aware sociotechnical systems
that integrate ubiquitous computational and human
support for guided situated action.
Lifeline consists of two programs: (1) a conduit that
runs on the Pocket PC and (2) a caregiver interface
that can be run in any web browser. The conduit is
responsible for collecting user activity information
via sensors and user input. It makes this information
available to caregivers via a web-based console.
The Lifeline server interprets client data and identifies
potential problems. Caregivers are notified with SMS
messages sent to their cell phone or email address.
Cognitive Levers
Helping people help themselves
Web Browser
Handheld
Lifeline Consoles
Application
Socket
3 Caregiver
c h e c k s
console for
details
2 Caregiver
alerted via
S M S
notification
Real-Time Messaging using
TCP/IP over wire or Wi-Fi or
PPP over Celluar Dialup
Lifeline Server
Wireless TCP/IP
OnStar
Amber Alert
MAPS
Script dB
Internet
National Emergency
Number Association
Lifeline
Conduit
Real-Time Messaging using
TCP/IP over Wi-Fi or
PPP over Celluar Dialup
Radio
Frequency
1 Task status is
continuously
sent to the
console
Goal: Lifeline seeks to give clients greater autonomy
in home, work, and travel activities and to give
caregivers the tools they need to assist their clients.
The aim is provide clients with opportunities they
might not otherwise have because of limited caregiver
resources. The emphases is to harnessing caregiver
support instead of replacing it with technology.
Approach: The design of Lifeline was informed by
a series of group home site visits, collaborations
with domain experts, and surveys of existing
approaches. Guided by theories of distributed
cognition and situated action, we identified virtues
in human support structures and exposed
shortcomings in existing technological approaches.
Conversely, we identified limitations of human support
and explored ways to mitigate these limitations
through the design of a sociotechnical solution.
Mobility
For All
National
Weather Service
GPS
MANTIS
Sensors